


Public Relations

by Kallonimo



Series: Shakarian Quarantine Project [30]
Category: Mass Effect Trilogy
Genre: Alcohol, F/M, no beta we die like jenkins, prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-16
Updated: 2020-06-16
Packaged: 2021-03-03 22:33:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 933
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24753244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kallonimo/pseuds/Kallonimo
Summary: Shepard really hates interviews.
Relationships: Female Shepard/Garrus Vakarian
Series: Shakarian Quarantine Project [30]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1751218
Comments: 4
Kudos: 51





	Public Relations

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt Category: Random  
> Prompt: “I’m too sober for this” “You don’t even drink” “Maybe I should start”

Shepard doesn’t remember exactly when she stopped drinking. It’s just that after becoming an N7 and all the extra work and responsibilities that came with it she didn’t really have the time. She’d only ever been a social drinker anyway. 

So by the time she takes command of the Normandy Shepard hasn’t had a drink in years and she is not inclined to start, now that she has to uphold an air of professionalism and gain the respect of a bunch of new people. 

She first states it outright when, one evening, she finds herself in the Lounge with Kaidan and Wrex.

“Beer, Commander?”

“No thanks, I don’t drink.”

Wrex laughs. “You don’t?! Damn Shepard.”

She raises an eyebrow. “That weird in Krogan culture?”

“Yes, actually”, Wrex leans back in his chair “If you can’t fight alcohol how do you expect to fight Thresher Maws”

“I just took one down yesterday!”

“That was in the Mako, get back to me when you do it on foot.”

-

“So let me get this straight”, Tali is questioningly tilting her head. “You are working with Cerberus, voluntarily.”

“More or less”, Shepard replies.

“Keelah”, her friend sighs. “You still don’t drink, right?”

“Yes? Why…”

“I just had to make sure you were sober.”

Shepard doesn’t know whether to laugh or groan in frustration. “I know what I’m doing, Tali.”

“Right.”

-

Being the good friend that she is, Tali does join them eventually. Soon after, they find themselves on Tuchanka, covered in bits of Thresher Maw and Shepard remembers an old conversation.

“Hey Wrex!”

“Shepard”

She raises her rifle. “Thresher Maw! On foot! Still not drinking!”

Wrex laughs. “Fine. You did it.”

Shepard grins. 

-

Eventually the moment she at least wants to does come. Shepard has just finished another interview with Allers and she is starting to get seriously annoyed by them. If everyone could just let her do her job and stop asking her to do Alliance PR on the side, it would be great.

“I should make a drinking game out of it, take a shot every time she asks me why I have aliens on board.”

Garrus looks up from whatever he is reading on his padd. “I thought you didn’t drink.”

“Maybe I should start.”

Garrus chuckles and stands up from the sofa to instead sit down on the bed next to her. “Don’t let the war turn you into an alcoholic.”

“It’s not the war”, Shepard protests “It’s the war reporting.”

“I have a counterproposal”, he leans closer to her. “Kiss your Turian boyfriend every time she asks why you have aliens on board.” 

“Hmmm”, she closes the distance between them, wrapping her arms around his neck. “Good idea.”

-

Things calm down a bit after the war. Shepard and Garrus actually get to retire, except for the publicity events that is. Of course, the one part of the job she gets to keep is the one she absolutely hates. She jokes, more than once, about just showing up to them drunk but she is still too much of a professional for that. 

For the first few of them the reporters seem in too much awe of her to even ask stupid questions, but now five years later, that isn’t that case any more. 

“Commander Shepard?”

Before she has even seen the guy he has already hit several squares on her war reporter bullshit bingo. Interrupted her while she was trying to talk to Kaidan, tapped her shoulder and called her Shepard even though it has been Vakarian for four years now. Only her friends call her Shepard any more and even some of them have switched to using her first name. She turns around nevertheless, putting on her publicity smile. The guy is wearing a pin depicting earth on his collar. Not a good sign, never a good sign. 

“Yes.”

“Just a few questions”

“I was actually in the middle of a conversation with Spectre Alenko…”, she replies hoping he’s getting the hint.

“I will be quick” Of course he isn’t.

Shepard leans back crossing her arms over her chest. She’s pretty sure Kaidan is chuckling. 

“Several galactic publications have chalked up your success to the fact you had a very diverse crew.”

Oh jesus christ, he’s going there. “Well yes, Kaidan here is Canadian, I have some German ancestry and our communications officer Samantha Traynor was British.” 

Kaidan is at this point, full on laughing. The reporter seems confused. “I was more thinking about the alien…”

“Oh”, Shepard raises an eyebrow. “Which one? My husband? Or the decorated Asari Archeologist? The Admiral of the Quarian Fleet? The Krogan Clan Leader? The Salarian who cured the Genophage? The first Geth to gain self awareness? The last Prothean? Because every single one of those aliens saved my life more times than I can count.” 

The reporter is stunned into silence for a moment. But then, from somewhere, still finds the courage to reply. “It’s just that...you also worked with Cerberus…so….uh….some have stated that maybe your non human crew mates contributions were...overstated.”

“Well, SOME are wrong and need to remember that I went on to kill a lot of Cerberus.”, she smiles.  
“Goodbye now”

She turns back around to face a still grinning Kaidan. “God, I wish I’d filmed that.”

Shepard takes a champagne glass from a nearby tray and empties it with one swig. “I hate all of this.”

Kaidan raises an eyebrow. “Did that guy seriously just make you drink alcohol?”

“Didn’t have Garrus around to kiss, so yeah”, she sighs. “Stupid questions will do that to you.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading :)


End file.
